Page 1 of 3

The saddest story so far.....

PostPosted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 11:58 pm
by Rifleman
Since I have been here on the west coast of Canada and living on Vancouver Island, I have just had the saddest experience........Back when I first moved here, I spent quite a bit of time at the local airpark and got to know a few of the great guys who fly here.....I have since had the good fortune to go flying with a few of these fine friends.......
This Thursday past, I received a most disturbing e-mail which stated the nightmare of any flier......a plane was down and in the river.....the note itself was from a friend who owns and operates a Volmer-Jensen homebuilt amphibian....been up in it and love the bird.....
Dave tells me of a dead stick landing in the river by Hal, the owner of a Vans RV-6...been up in this one too and looked forward to the possibility of another jaunt.....not looking good so far......
So the first question is about Hal.....but the answer is already mentioned in a word that he is OK and back to the river in the PM to try and assess the situation so some form of recovery can be initiated ?...
Well where do we start ......always the question is "what happened? ".....really, this can be gone over after, but for now, lets just suffice to say that a mistake was made and it was a very costly one, but in the final analysis, the physical injuries will heal and the financial loss will not totally ever be recovered, ......sad indeed, but life goes on.......

First imags here will show where the A/C sat inverted on the bottom of the river at low tide, just a few hours after the dust had settled......


Image



Image


This is Friday morn at first light.....rain falling and the tide is high......not a good start to make an attempt to overturn the bird back onto its wheels so we can tow it down river to the float plane ramp.......we took lots of tries before we eventually had to give up the idea as the current in the river was too strong and the ability to maneuver the boat was not adequate ......images of this part were not able to be captured as the four of us in the boat were a bit to busy to take a chance of losing a camera overboard......here also is the boat at the dock after we had finally placed the A/C just off the ramp for the drag out of the water......

Image


Image


Image

Just off the ramp and ready for the haul and flip .....this wasn't the most relaxing part of the ordeal.....but it does show the damage and how bad things can get in this sort of situation.....

Image


Image


Image


Image

From here, you can see the boxes strapped in which were used to take air samples for an environmental agency......this was the purpose of the flight on this particular day.....

Image

Back on its wheels, the little yellow bird now awaits its final trip back to the hangar.......

Image

Without any power, the bent and broken airframe is physically manhandled as it gets rolled back on misaligned wheels to Hangar 37....

Image


Image

And now at the hangar, it sits dejected and sad looking with only bare resemblance of its beautiful look from the morning before......

Image


Image


Image

And the way I will always remember her, with me and Hal preparing for a great evening flight over the mountains of Vancouver Island....

Image

Sorry for the long winded story and excess of images, ....will try to stay within the rules ......... :-[

Re: The saddest story so far.....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:34 am
by 767-300er
man, that looks like a nasty crash. He's lucky he didn't get killed :-[ :(

Re: The saddest story so far.....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 1:52 am
by Rifleman
There is a real irony on this story ........the fact of surviving a small aircraft crash is bad enough, but imagine this........ upon impact, and this is verified from the G-Meter from the cockpit, the water was impacted at, at least 10 G's... this buckled the fuselage to the extent that after removing belts, it was found that the canopy frame was jambed and wouldn't open,.......fortunately the canopy exploded outward and left an opening large enough for the pilot to stand on the seat, step out onto the wing, remove his jacket and wait for the plane to sink from under himself ........
........here is the bad part, and its not just the fact that the water is almost ice cold.......the river has current and for a strong swimmer it was pretty wide, but how about for a non-swimmer ?.........this was the situation...........learn to swim now, in ice cold water and with current and after sustaining a huge jolt to the entire body from a deceleration factor of at least 10 G's.......
My hats off to the man who kept his cool long enough to do all this and remain with us to tell the tale........Good on ya Hal......I'm so happy to see you in these shots........

Re: The saddest story so far.....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 2:06 am
by Flt.Lt.Andrew
Holy DODGEBALL!
U can sit in that thing?!
Amazing!
That is very unfortunate....will it ever fly again?
(damage doesnt look TOOOOOOOOOOO bad)

A.

Re: The saddest story so far.....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 2:10 am
by Rifleman
As it sits now, its a write-off.....engine may be serviceable, and some of the instruments and radio gear, but the airframe looks to be off the scale.........

Re: The saddest story so far.....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 2:17 am
by ChuckMajik
I'm rather amazed Hal stayed so calm.
I'd imagine the sudden surge of adrenaline would have helped.
How badly was he injured, if at all?

(damage doesnt look TOOOOOOOOOOO bad)

What are you talking about, it looks like a complete write-off!
I bet almost every frame in the bird is bent in some way.

Re: The saddest story so far.....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 4:02 am
by ozzy72
10G's! Holy **** :o :o :o
Hal is lucky to have got out of that mess alive. The poor plane doesn't look so well :( Just shows how well built it was!
Don't worry Ken, now you can help Hal build a new one ;)

Re: The saddest story so far.....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 4:28 am
by lemoncat
that's not something you see everyday..that's one lucky guy to walk away from such a bad crash,,,amazing :)
did he put down in the river thinking that might be better than trying for solid ground..

Re: The saddest story so far.....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 5:04 am
by ChuckMajik
did he put down in the river thinking that might be better than trying for solid ground..

Most of the solid ground on Vancouver Island is laden with tall trees.
So ditching her in the wet stuff was probably the best thing to do.

Re: The saddest story so far.....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 5:13 am
by Hagar
That is indeed a sorry sight. Unique shots though. Well done. Probably come in useful for the insurance claim. I wonder how you go on about that. Will they pay up?

As I said in your other thread, the most important thing is that your friend is OK.

Re: The saddest story so far.....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 6:28 am
by pete
I'm sure Hal realises how lucky he is/was ........ At the end of the day he's lost nothing compared to his life .....

& I'm sure with his insurance he'll get a shiney replacement .... just hope this hasn't put him off the hobby ....  :)

Re: The saddest story so far.....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 6:35 am
by jrpilot
How much is that aircraft? looks pretty expensive..how long did he have it for?

Re: The saddest story so far.....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 6:46 am
by C
Shame that its a write off, but at least Hal was ok, and did a might fine job of ditching it in the first place...

Charlie

Re: The saddest story so far.....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 8:21 am
by beaky
Ouch. Poor baby- she was a pretty one.  Glad nobody got hurt too bad, though! Lest anyone doubt, these pictures are proof: water is NOT soft! Then there's the fact that after the crash, you risk drowning and/or hypothermia... not my idea of a good time.  He definitely made the correct choice, from the looks of it; too many trees and houses around to put her on dry land. Don't know much about these birds, but I'd imagine the glide ratio is not spectacular- probably didn't have a lot of time to make his decision. Good job!
As for the recovery damage, with limited equipment it seems the best that could have been done, and the airframe looks like it was finshed already anyway. If the plane was insured and the engine, etc.  salvagable, I see another RV-6 in Hal's future!
:)

Re: The saddest story so far.....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 9:26 am
by Omag 2.0
It's hearthbreaking, what can one say...

Guess the others said or asked what I wanted to do...

I only hope your friend will have the currage to get back into the air, one fine day...